Month: November 2022

First off, I’d like to say how much I enjoyed AJ Hanneld as a guest speaker. She amazed me. To be honest, each week I’m literally blown away by the accomplishments that each speaker is able to showcase during their talk, allowing us a glimpse into our future workload as well as being great examples of how to process our journey here at school. It’s also humbling to see the quality of the talent our program produces. It’s quite inspiring. So thank you for that. Each Friday, I look forward to sitting down and getting to see inside of a successful designers life, work and process. It’s a definite privilege, one I don’t take for granted.

The students in both the visual media and design programs are likely to traverse similar creative paths. Both share an intrinsic desire to tell stories using a variety of methods, tools and materials. It never surprises me when I hear stories about, for example, a photographer who is now a graphic designer. Or maybe someone use to be a graphic designer but now they primarily do motion graphics. It’s a testament to the inquisitive nature of the people that gravitate to these kinds of fields or practices. I know that moving forward in my career, I will undoubtedly have to work alongside people in the visual media industry. Our works often depend on the other for greatest impact.

To succeed in these varied forms of art and design, a large part of our job usually entails attempting to understand the motivations of the viewer or that of our client. It’s as if we are part-time psychologists. As creatives, we need to learn how to get into their headspace in order to determine how best to approach solving their problem. Understanding the needs and desires of your audience is a practiced art form, of which we get plenty in our respective programs. Seeing how other creatives achieve this is both instrumental and inspirational. It’s extremely helpful.

And as I progress in the program, I see that they are trying to help us formulate concrete methods and processes that are geared at helping us to adjust our bias and to hopefully see our client more clearly. And though the VME students use different toolsets to achieve their results, the processes have familiar tones and nuances. Like story boarding, or word associations, mind mapping. Sketching out our visions. Each tool a helpful resource for helping us to fine tune our message, and to better pinpoint clever, maybe previously not seen, solutions.

Now to be fair, both of my breakout modules thus far have been more design skill centric. First in VR, and now in interactive design. However, I know that next quarter I will be in a filmmaking module, and I’m truly looking forward to that. I’d love to see how my school mates use their tools. Premiere Pro, After Effects, light and gear choices. I’m very excited about it. And to see more closely how they brainstorm for a photoshoot or for maybe an interview. To see how they organize their information. Though still in my nascency as a graphic designer, I trust that I am in good hands. Careful and thoughtful in how they prepare us for our futures ahead.

Of the leadership principals highlighted by Margaret, one immediately stands out. And that’s learn and be curious. It also happens to be an example of something that impacts my life currently. Being in school, challenging myself to think differently and to grow as an artist has surely piqued my curiosity, while at the same time pushing myself to continually learn new and exciting skillsets. I find myself seeking out other resources to compliment what I’m learning in each class. YouTube tutorials, blogs, periodicals. It has helped me to practice the skills I’m accumulating, helping to make them stick more deeply.

Another principal that calls out to me is that of customer obsession. Just last week, while at work, I went above and beyond the call of duty to help satisfy a customers need. In fact, after the transaction was done, the customer told me that were it not for me, they would have gone to another store to purchase their espresso machine. Turns out, the lead in my department was rude to his wife, and they were walking out until I kindly greeted them and sparked up a conversation based off a t-shirt he was wearing. Fifteen minutes later, and poof, they were walking out with a $2700 machine. I loved seeing how happy they were compared with the vibe I was intuiting from them directly following their bad experience with my manager.

Being a freelance photographer in my past life (pre-covid), I’ve often worked under the principal of frugality. Having to accomplish more with less. And while it can be stressful, I’m always pleased with the level of ingenuity that it breeds. Knowing that this is something that will be important to my career going forward makes me feel at ease. It’s helpful to have already worked under these circumstances.

Having not been in a situation where I did the hiring or planned for the professional development of those hires is the one that, at present, feels the hardest to adopt. It feels like something that is at the very least 5 years into my future, which also makes it feel slightly overwhelming to consider doing. But I’m up to the challenge. And know that one day, after I’ve put in my time, I will be ready to deliver on this principal successfully.